Twenty years ago, one of Frontera Grill’s first customers walked in, perused the menu, slammed it shut, walked up to Rick Bayless, told him “This isn’t Mexican food. You’re never gonna make it.” Nonetheless, with his mother and his mother-in-law’s retirement money on the line, Bayless adhered to his vision of authentic regional Mexican and the good fight against the Chimichanga began. In a city where a restaurant lasting three years is a feat, Frontera charged through the awkward teenage years, and on March 18th, the restaurant celebrates it’s 20th anniversary. In this month’s podcast, you’ll get a chance to hear about those early days, what Chef Bayless thinks about the Nuevo Latino trend, as well as his thoughts on why Latino chefs don’t always make it out front and center in the restaurant world.
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Rick Bayless Interview
Mohammad Islam would make a first-rate drug pusher. The executive chef and co-owner of the new River North hot spot Aigre Doux (which means sweet and sour in French) Restaurant and Bakery is standing next to his wife, pastry chef and co-owner Malika Ameen, and Oriana Kruszewski, aka “The Walnut Lady” in the basement pastry kitchen. Islam repeatedly dips his hand in Kruszewski’s zip-locked stash, and gives me handfuls of her black walnuts (they taste like extraordinary dried apples). Kruszewski’s also brought along some homemade preserves, frozen cornelian cherries and raspberries. Islam is handing spoons of the stuff to me as if he were a countercultural shaman bestowing a particularly robust strain of Humboldt County pot. As Islam chews on a cherry, there’s a child-waking-up-on-Christmas-day-like glint in his eyes as he tells Kruszewski he’d like to see her at the back door of Aigre Doux every two weeks. Kruszewski looks at him and tells him he’s crazy, and that if he buys her high-quality-but-pricey products that frequently, he’ll go out of business. More »
This month I sit down and talk shop with Chicago’s top fishmongers, Dirk Fucik (Dirk’s Fish and Gourmet Shop, 2070 N. Clybourn Ave.; 773-404-3475), and Bill Dugan (The Fishguy Market, 4423 N. Elston Ave.; 773-283-7400), who have a combined 60 years of experience in all things aquatic.
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Fishmonger Interview
You’d expect Lush, the wine and spirits store located at 1306 S. Halsted, to look more like a South Side corner liquor store, with flashing neon lights and haphazard rows of sparkling liquor bottles, old bourbon barrels filled with random assortments of wines, and maybe a sprinkle of sawdust for good measure. More »
What do Axl Rose, UB40, and Paul McCartney have in common? Debra Sharpe cooked for them all at one time. Sharpe, still a caterer to rock stars, set down roots in Chicago in the early ’90’s, and opened a slew of restaurants, including long running Feast in Bucktown. She currently relaunched her Cru Cafe and Wine Bar and opened up another branch of her successful Goddess and the Grocer store. In this podcast we talk about the secrets of food entrepreneurship, rock star food predilections, and her early career as a journalist working the death beat in Australia’s Coroners Court.
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Debra Sharpe Interview
Madhur Jaffrey, an actress, a writer, and a cook, is a true Renaissance woman. Born in Delhi, India, she moved to the UK to study acting. While there, she pined for an authentic home cooked Indian meal. While growing up she never really cooked, so she wrote her mother asking for cooking advice and recipes. The letters they exhanged launched the ship that now constitutes hundreds of articles, many critically acclaimed cookbooks, and a few cooking shows. Jaffrey has a new memoir out called Climbing the Mango Trees, about her childhood in India. It’s a rich and vivid romp of the senses and last week while she was in Chicago we caught up via a phonecall.
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Madhur Jaffrey Interview
Steve Chiappetti made his bones at Mango, Grapes, and Rhapsody. He was really one of Chicago’s first celebrity chefs. In 2000, he closed all of his restaurants and took some time off to raise his kids, pursue photography, work on a book, and start a bakery with his wife. He returned in 2003 with Café Le Coq in Oak Park, where his sweetbreads in a vanilla and Moroccan BBQ sauce were one of my favorite dishes in 2003. Now, Chiappetti’s breathing new life into Viand (155 E. Ontario St.; 312-255-8505), an American bistro that he’s patterning after Mango. In this podcast we touch on life before and after the break, what it’s like to cook for movie stars and their dogs, and the famous Chicago based family business, Chiappetti Veal and Lamb.
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Steve Chiappetti Interview
A scene from the movie Blow between Johnny Depp (George), who plays a drug dealer, and his father Ray Liotta (Fred):
FRED
I just don’t know what you’re thinking. I don’t understand your choices. You know, the police are looking for you.
GEORGE
I know. I’m great at what I do, Dad. I mean, I’m really great.
FRED
Let me tell you something, son. You would have been great at anything.
The thing I’ve learned in the last year of interviewing food personalities is that great chefs, like Depp’s character, would be great at anything they do. Great chefs don’t bow to economic pressure and buy substandard product, poorly sauce plates, or overcook protein when the weeds are high. They adhere to their principles and an idea of quality no matter the consequence.
Great chefs work clean, treat the mincing of rosemary, the segmenting of citrus, and the sweeping of the floor with the same importance as writing a menu and inventing a new dish. Great chefs are always in the moment. Chef Rick Tramonto once told me that Charlie Trotter’s philosophy was that “If everyone in the restaurant came in and did one thing better than they did the day before, then you’d have 50 people doing one thing better each day.” That’s a powerful message and it’s ultimately the hallmark that great chefs strive to do each day better than the one before. Grant Achatz is one of those chefs.
Achatz’s restaurant Alinea was recently named the #1 restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine for many of the reasons outlined above. In this podcast Achatz talks about what it means to be committed to a vision of constant evolution, perfecting something, throwing it away, and starting again. We also talk about customer expectations, why molecular gastronomy isn’t a meaningful label, how family meal or “comida” is different for the Alinea staff, and of course the most important question, what is Achatz favorite Potbelly sandwich?
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: GrantAchatzInterview.mp3
40 men were interviewed, but only she was hired. Chef Maneet Chauhan is burning it up with a new fusion of spicy Indian and Latino fare at Vermilion restaurant. In this podcast, Chauhan talks about Indian food in America, where she likes to eat in Chicago, and how to pair wine with Indian food.
If you have Adobe Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: ManeetChauhanInterview.mp3
Restaurant kitchens are the secular hells of our society, where oppressive heat is the devil. Yet heat is also the inescapable philosopher’s stone that transforms food through the alchemy of cooking, and on this Saturday night, where a flashing LED sign on Western Avenue registers 92°F, the Del Toro kitchen in Wicker Park swelters like an August afternoon in a Madrid bullring. More »
The last time I was awake at 4a.m. I was drunk. This time, it would have helped. Rousing myself at that hour, driving in a half-bleary state and shooting across the inky blacktop of the Kennedy, I was sure that the thin threads of my neural network had finally snapped. More »
Luxuriant plants dance in the stream coming from the hose trained on them. The tall, sandy-haired farmer’s son who is doing the watering strides gently but confidently among the tidy rows of healthy herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers. However, this farmer’s son is not attired in overalls. Instead, he sports a spotless, white jacket with a line of embroidery that identifies him as Michael Maddox, chef/owner of Le Titi de Paris, the celebrated French restaurant in Arlington Heights. More »
The heady fragrance of black pepper and cinnamon began to tease my senses while I was still a block from the store. As I entered the attractive Evanston shop, a rich, almost intoxicating blend of aromas enveloped me, drawing me into the warm, woody interior, towards the walls and shelves of jars filled with tantalizing delights from the four corners of the earth. Before me was an astonishing array of lovingly prepared, freshly ground herbs and spices—from ajowan seed to za’atar. No wonder Julia Child loved this place. More »
Adam Seger is the Charlie Trotter of cocktails. Actually, Trotter doesn’t serve spirits in his Lincoln Park restaurant, so it might be more appropriate to call Seger the Grant Achatz of spirits. The important thing is that Seger, also the general manager and sommelier at the Nuevo Latino restaurant Nacional 27 in Chicago, is blurring the distinction between the bar and the kitchen. He’s leading a wave of mixology that focuses on creating balanced cocktails from farm fresh locally sourced produce, with homemade liquors, aromatic infusions and spiced drink rims. As Seger puts it, “I think about food and how I can translate that to a liquid form.”
A lot of this philosophy comes from Seger’s time working with Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand at Tru and Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. Seger was even hired as the pre-opening GM of Keller’s new york outpost Per Se. For this podcast, Adam and I met at Chicago’s Green City Market so I could see how he constructed his weekly market based cocktail list.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Adam Seger Interview
If you would like to read about the experience, view the companion article I wrote for Newcity Chicago here
This week I speak with Ayun Halliday, a saucy, hip New York City mama. She’s written a food memoir called Dirty Sugar Cookies, which is a wry romp chronicling Halliday’s path from fussy childhood eater with a “pinched” sense of culinary adventure, to wanderlusting adult chomping on Bahn Mi in Vietnam and Mangosteens in Thailand, and then karmically back to her current role as a mother of her picky eating daughter, Inky. It’s a great read for frustrated parents, gourmands, and even the pickiest of eaters.
In this podcast, we talk about great Bahn Mi in New York, raising picky eaters, ramen noodles, the hazards of writing food memoirs, and more.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Ayun Halliday Interview
This week, we catch up with Master Sommelier Alpana Singh. Singh is the director of wine and spirits for Chicago’s Lettuce Entertain you restaurant group in Chicago. She’s also the host of Check Please, Chicago’s popular PBS restaurant review show.
At 26, Singh was the youngest person ever to garner the Master Sommelier title. There are only 120 Master Sommeliers in the world, and only 13 women have earned the distinction in North America. The MS diploma exam includes a blind tasting of 6 wines, for which the sommelier must name the grape varietal, country of origin, district of origin, and vintage. This is certainly a monumental task, even for the most distinguished palate.
In the podcast interview we talk about fusion cooking, whether the newest generation of wine drinkers is being exposed to good wine, the hazards of dating a sommelier, and drinking champagne with Mahatma Ghandi, Bill Clinton, and Larry David.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Alpana Singh Interview
If your coffee comes from metal cans or has been sitting in the icebox for months next to that freezer burned box of Fudgsicles, throw it out, and then listen to this week’s podcast.
This week I sit down with Thomas Meinl, the fourth generation from Vienna’s Julius Meinl coffee roasting family, and Doug Zell, the founder and CEO of Chicago’s craft coffee roaster, Intelligentsia. We talk about issues of fair trade, the economics of coffee, the best way to brew coffee, the story of how coffee came to Vienna, and eating mole and drinking Mezcal in Oaxaca.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Thomas Meinl and Doug Zell Interview
In this week’s podcast interview we sit down with Bruce Sherman of Chicago’s North Pond Restaurant. Bruce Sherman was named Food and Wine Best New Chef in 2003. He’s a graduate of Penn, the London School of Economics, and spent years living in India learning to cook seasonally from what was available each day at the local produce vendor or “wallah”. Chef Sherman is one of the most socially conscious chefs in Chicago. He’s been a huge proponent of the small family farmer, instrumental in growing Chicago’s Green City Market, and a member of the Chef’s collaborative, an organization that that teaches about local, artisanal, and sustainable cuisine. In this week’s conversation we talk about Chicago’s foie gras ban, the economics of running a restaurant, his time in India, and what it’s like cooking for Julia Child.
Also, listen for details on how you can score some free Julius Meinl coffee and Tea.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Bruce Sherman Interview
Go inside North Pond’s kitchen with a photo slide show from Hungry photographer Tuan Bui.
Sometimes it’s easier to save a life than serve a diner.
This is some of the wisdom I recieved from Nader Salti, a Jerusalem born practicing surgeon, who owns and operates Saltaus restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood in his free time.
In this week’s podcast we talk about street food in Jerusalem, the challenges of restaurant entrepreneurship, and Saltaus chef Brad Phillips, previously of Nomi and Blackbird restaurants.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Nader Salti Interview
Check out our photo slideshow of Saltaus by photographer Tuan Bui.
If Paul Kahan was a musician, he’d be a critic’s indie darling. Kahan makes a career of flying below the radar, all the while turning out sublime cuisine. Even though he won the James Beard award for Best Chef Midwest and was named Food and Wine Best New Chef in 1999, he skipped the limelight, avoided writing ego driven cookbooks, and focused on his craft. In contrast to his fellow Food and Wine Best New Chef classmate, Rocco Dispirito, there was no reality show restaurant meltdown for Kahan.
Like an indie band, Kahan makes sure he’s saying something with his art. He pays attention to the politics of the plate, using organic products, developing relationships with independent purveyors, and always respecting seasonality. This is no mere lip service. Kahan was instrumental in building up Chicago’s Green City Market which supports small family farms.
Along with Charlie Trotter and Rick Bayless, Paul Kahan and Blackbird paved the way for independent restauranteurs and played a role in defining Chicago’s current fine dining scene.
Fans of Kahan will be exicited to hear he may be opening a gastropub in Chicago later this year. In our podcast we talk about the vision for this new concept, sustainable agriculture, meat cures, the power of chefs, the influence of architecture on food, and whether chefs take themselves too seriously.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Paul Kahan Interview
, about her childhood in India. It’s a rich and vivid romp of the senses and last week while she was in Chicago we caught up via a phonecall. 
This week I speak with Ayun Halliday, a saucy, hip New York City mama. She’s written a food memoir called 
Check out the cookware we use all the time.
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